WTAM Local News

Turnpike crash cause was speed and poor driving

(Toledo) — The State Highway Patrol says unsafe speed and poor driving was to blame for a series of pileups that left three people dead on the Ohio Turnpike earlier this month.

The patrol says it has finished its investigation and will turn the results over to a northern Ohio prosecutor to determine if charges are warranted.

A final tally from investigators shows that 55 vehicles were damaged and 36 people were injured in the crashes on a snowy two-mile stretch of the turnpike's eastbound lanes halfway between Toledo and Cleveland.

The patrol says other crashes along the turnpike on March brought the total number of vehicles damaged that day to 126.

The patrol says one of the causes of the crashes was that drivers were following too closely.